NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by RollTide1987 on 11/15/12 at 7:48 am to RollTide1987)

After reading the full article...I'm not sure that I am going to watch this, especially after I read this line:

quote:...and then there’s the George Washington who had an adulterous affair with his best friend’s wife.

Seriously? Are we making up history now? There's very little doubt that he loved Sally Fairfax, but there is absolutely ZERO evidence that he ever had an affair with her. Why are they making up complete falsehoods just to make him seem more human? Nobody is perfect but you don't need to slander a guy who lived 200+ years ago just to make him more relatable to the average American TV viewer.

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by RollTide1987 on 11/15/12 at 8:21 am to Tiger Voodoo)

I agree with the assertion that HBO should be doing this. But here's another example of the dude writing this thing having no idea what the hell he is talking about:

quote:“The George Washington obsessed with social status, finely-tailored clothes, his image.

Dude...this is 18th Century Virginia we are talking about, the most aristocratic colony in the New World at that time. OF COURSE he's going to be obsessed with his image and his social status, every Virginia gentleman was. Washington was a self-made man who wanted to better himself and advance through the ranks of the British Army. Social status bought you a lot of promotions in that day and age.

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by Baloo on 11/15/12 at 8:55 am to RollTide1987)

I admire GW, but he was more obsessed with social status than his contemporaries Madison and Jefferson (of course, they also started off much richer). Washington WAS a social climber who was obsessed with his image. There's nothing outrageous about that. He carefully cultivated the image of Father of Our Country and many of his writings were made with an eye towards future historians reading it. He was his own PR firm.

Sort of like how Washington never sought office, it was always bestowed upon him. Meanwhile, he had Hamilton working behind the scenes to secure him those honors. Those were the times indeed, but Washington WAS a prickly and status-conscious man. Even by the standards of his time.

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by RollTide1987 on 11/15/12 at 9:22 am to Baloo)

quote:Washington WAS a social climber who was obsessed with his image. There's nothing outrageous about that.

That's the only reason why I was commenting on it, because the dude who is writing the pilot/screenplay/teleplay/whatever made it out to be something of a negative. The fact that Washington didn't come from money kind of explains why he was a social climber. He wanted to better himself like anyone who comes from the middle class today wants to better themselves. Social status was EVERYTHING if you were an officer in the British Army. He had to have the standing in society to gain promotion. I think his failure at gaining those promotions, and the bitterness he felt toward the British because of it, is a far better story than a historically inaccurate telling of an affair he never had with Sally Fairfax.

Did he have flaws? Sure! Every man does. But that doesn't mean you have to invent those flaws just for the sake of drama and television ratings.

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by Baloo on 11/15/12 at 9:38 am to RollTide1987)

I prefer to wait until I see something before I complain about its inaccuracies. But Washington's social climber nature and a bit of fussy priggishness are negative attributes. It doesn't make him any less of a great man, but he was not a personable or warm man. He was famously difficult, even for the time. Which is fine, he was George f'n Washington, but he wasn't a gregarious or particularly warm man.

And I hate to say there's NO evidence of an affair with Sally Fairfax. They exchanged love letters, had plenty of opportunity, and continued to be frequent houseguests after they were married. It's possible they never had sex but it's equally possible they did. I'm agnostic on the issue and don't think it really matters from a historical standpoint. But I wouldn't be outraged by a drama that posits the theory they did have a sexual affair, particularly in the period when she was married and he was not. The writer's not making it up out of whole cloth.

I'll see how they handle it. But I prefer things which show people to be flawed people and not gods. Even genuinely great men like Washington.

re: NBC developing a drama miniseries on George Washington(Posted by RollTide1987 on 11/15/12 at 10:04 am to Baloo)

quote:And I hate to say there's NO evidence of an affair with Sally Fairfax. They exchanged love letters, had plenty of opportunity, and continued to be frequent houseguests after they were married. It's possible they never had sex but it's equally possible they did.

It is possible that they did but seeing as there is no evidence pointing to a sexual encounter having ever happened, I don't think it right for them to call it "an adulterous affair" when the extent of that evidence involves love letters.

quote:But I prefer things which show people to be flawed people and not gods.

I do too. I only ask that they remain truthful with the facts and not try to embellish them for dramatic license. Washington was a flawed man, but also a great one. You don't need to exaggerate a relationship that may or may not have been adulterous just to show your audience that he was human like the rest of us.